An online journal for the North Devon Athenaeum
As the Queen celebrates her Platinum Jubilee, our Assistant Librarian looks back at her visit to Barnstaple in 1956. People always remember when they met the Queen or Prince Philip. When I was at Secondary School, we were taken to the Essex Schools Athletic Sports Championship. During the day three of us needed to go …
The 1920’s were known as the “Roaring Twenties” with the “Bright Young Things” of the wealthy classes life had never been better with their hedonistic wild behaviour shocking society. A legacy from the First World War was that women were much more independent. For young women, known as “Flappers,” gone were the tight corseted, floor …
This weekend sees the return of the Bath and West of England Society’s show at Shepton Mallet in Somerset. The Society was originally called the Bath Society and was established in 1777 ‘for the encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in the Counties of Somerset, Wilts, Gloucester and Dorset’. By 1779 Devon and Cornwall …
To celebrate the life of Charles Kingsley a few years ago we traced the local links between him and PG Wodehouse via Rudyard Kipling and H H Munro (aka Saki). However, these are not the only Literary Links in North Devon. On this day in 1851 George Newnes was born in Matlock, Derbyshire, the youngest …
Continue reading "Literary Links, Discover Sir George Newnes…On Our Shelves!"
While the celebrations marking the end of the War in Europe swept across the country, there were many who were still waiting to hear news from the men fighting in the east. “Although the European War was over, it didn’t really affect me. All the jollifications. My husband was still fighting, I was still upset. …
Continue reading "Discover VJ Day and the War in the Far East…On Our Shelves!"
As part of International Archives Week we are taking a look at some of the posts we’ve written about the document and archive collections in our care and the work we do. Today we’re taking a look at some of the posts we’ve written about our collections. 1. The North Devon Journal Archive One of …
As today marks the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day we take a look at some of the resources we hold within our collections. Throughout the course of the war, the Athenaeum did its bit. The railings were taken to be melted down and used in industry, there was a fire watch station on …
Continue reading "Discover VE Day and World War II…On Our Shelves!"
1. The Journal was First Published in 1824 The very first edition of the North Devon Journal was Published on Friday 2nd July 1824 and we have the only known copy of the edition in our collection. 2. When First Published Each Edition was Part Printed in Two Different Places. The first part of the …
Continue reading "10 Facts About the North Devon Journal Archive"
Yesterday we celebrated 5 years of Tales From the Archives by counting down our Five most read posts. Today we thought we would bring you 5 posts you may have missed over the years... 5. Discover the Effects of Beeching's Axe...On Our Shelves! Part of our Discover...On Our Shelves series, this post was written by …
Preparing for this year's Armed Forces exhibition I came across this story about the Air Sea Rescue Helicopter from RAF Chivenor whose crew had a lucky escape... Waving boys saw sudden blue flash Four schoolboys waved to a passing helicopter above Bideford Bridge on Tuesday night, and in the same second there was a vivid …
Tales From the Archives 